Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter?
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Which is better? Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?
Which is the better series of books?
See results without votingOne of the first serious books I read was Lord of the Rings. It had a profound effect on me, influencing my book choices over the nest twenty or thirty years and opening up a fantastic world of imagination for me. Not only did the book bring to life a world of fantasy for me, but the quality of writing and the descriptive language enhanced my love for the written word and inspired me to work on the quality of my own writing.
Years later, as my own children began to grow and read we came across a set of books that had a similar effect on my children; not only that, but the books also brought our family closer as the time we read the books became ‘our’ time. Harry Potter, while probably not written as well as Lord of the Rings holds many similar qualities:
- Rowling has the ability to tell a great story, just has Tolkien does.
- Rowling and Tolkien both created real characters who we learn to love and suffer with.
- The worlds they both created are real and tangible, with flora, fauna, creatures and monsters that are out of mythology, but seem real and dangerous.
Lord of the Rings is a classic, and most literature experts would not disagree. Does Harry Potter deserve the same accolade? Is Harry Potter better than Lord of the Rings?
(To assist in your votes, please see my synopsis of each series below).
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Harry Potter - Brief Synospis
Harry Potter is a classic story about the struggles of good when faced with ultimate evil; it’s not quite that simple in Harry Potter though, as good and evil has varying shades of gray that seem to blur the line between the two and make you think about the concepts of good and evil.
As we watch Harry Potter, an orphaned boy living with his cruel Uncle and Aunty, we watch a confused young man discovering his magical abilities and trying to come to terms with a world that is more fantastic and dangerous than he could ever have imagined.
As he attends the Wizarding school of Hogwarts, Harry meets many characters that begin to change him as he finds danger, deceit and evil facing him at every turn. He forms a bond with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and in doing so, begins to learn more about kinship and love.
His nemesis Voldermort is always present in his mind and seems intent on Harry’s destruction; Voldermort represents everything that Harry despises – deceit, dishonor, evil, power monger and above all the desire to crush and control people.
While at school Harry finds many enemies, including the spiteful Draco Malfoy and Professor Snape who through his own personal hatred of Harry seems intent on ensuring Harry fails at everything he does.
In the seven books of the Harry Potter series, we follow Harry as he moves through each year at Hogwarts school. Every year he embarks on dangerous quests that test his prowess at magic, but also test his moral fortitude.
The books are more about the bonds of friendship and love, and the power these have to achieve anything rather than the simple action plots that are prevalent throughout – they tell a tale of a boy who grows through diversity.
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Lord of the Rings - brief synopsis.
How do you sum up a work of art that transcends normal writing and becomes a pure literature classic in a few words; the simple answer is that you can’t. I can give a brief outline of the plot, and comment on some of the great characters, but this is just scratching the surface of Lord of the Rings.
Lord of the Rings is written in such a manner that it jumps out at you and becomes real. The descriptions are so vivid that you can get an understanding of the world in which the book takes place. The songs and poems are so well written that you can imagine a real scholar in Middle Earth writing them, and you can feel the passion of the orators as they speak or sing these works of art. This is what makes Lord of the Rings so good; it’s not simply a book, it’s more like a voice over to a real living breathing world.
When we join Bilbo Baggins’s 111th birthday party we feel as if we a really there. We watch as he reluctantly gives away his heirloom to his nephew Frodo, and watch in fear as we begin to understand how dangerous this heirloom really is.
The heirloom is a Ring; and as Gandalf, the great wizard soon discovers, it is the One Ring created by Dark Lord Sauron to control all the other magical rings in Middle Earth.
Meanwhile, Frodo, under the advice of Gandalf begins a journey to take the ring to Rivendell so that its fate can be decided; the council cannot decide what to do with the ring, with various factions arguing about what should occur, so Frodo eventually stands tall and offers to take the Ring to the cracks of doom to be destroyed.
And so the Fellowship of the Ring is formed. The fellowship is a strange one, joining together several different races with a common cause. First we have the hobbits – Frodo, Pippin, Merry and Sam; a dwarf – Gimli; an elf – Legolas; a wizard – Gandalf; and man – Boromir and Aragorn.
As we follow the intrepid band we again see the importance of the bonds of friendship and how these often can be torn apart under stress and when there are conflicting desires. Ultimately, the goal is to thwart the progress of evil; Lord Sauron is intent on recovering the ring and uses everything in his power to do this. With his allies and those under his power he seeks to destroy the fellowship while also gaining control over Middle Earth.
His most faithful and dangerous servants are the Nazgul – they were once proud men, the holders of magic rings now under the power of the dark lord – as ring wraiths they are evil and powerful and perhaps are the greatest danger to the quest.
What follows is a story of passion, love, loss and ultimately the struggle of good to overcome evil despite the odds against them. In a world that feels real, with real dangers we find ourselves immersed in a truly classic story.
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I say Lord of the Rings. Not that the Harry Potter series doesn't have its good points, but Tolkien's creation is a richer experience.
All of my boys and their dad love Lord of the Rings, as far as I know none have read Harry Potter. My dad loves Harry Potter and so does a friend and all her kids. These series sure have gotten hold of people! Various of my boys have been inspired to make computer games, live games, written stories and come up with their own complete languages because of Lord of the Rings. My youngest hates to read but he's working his way through these anyway. He even tried to read the Silmarillion (sp?) in third grade - his reading log (in the part where he was to summarize what he read) said, "I have no idea!"
Every time a son moves out, we have to get him his own set of the books and movies.
I haven't read either but I'll put in my son's vote for LOTR. Only one collective vote.
Silmarillon is a very difficult book to read - it's more like a history book than a fantasy book! It's great background reading and fleshes out a lot of the legends from LOTR!
This comparison is there as a joke right?
They are not in the same league!!!
The only time JKR gets close to JRRT is on a shelf sorted by intials!!
LOTR has a depth and richness that puts it on a different level to anything else in the fantasy genre. The themes, languages and world created are so convincing that it is also the "source book" for just about all other fantasy writers.
A fat elf anyone? Dwarfs climbing trees or Elven miners? Inconcievable after LOTR was written. It also deals with emotion, motivation and character flaws rarely seen outside something like Tolstoy.
HP books, however, are a re-hash of well worn themes and ideas cranked out in a simplified, child friendly format.
Ever read Tom Brown's School days for example?
Take new boy going to strange school, swap inspirational headmaster Arnold for Dumbledore, keep the house system, change the bullying Flashman's crowd into the slytherin, replace rugby with Quidditch and your almost at Hogwarts already?
Mix in a bit of magic, lift some Star Wars themes and add in Tolkein lore and with a quick spin of the wand and yell of "copyploticus!!" - you have Harry Potter.
Is there anything original or really thought provoking in the entire Potter series?
Getting kids to read is great and I enjoyed the whole Potter series.
But please! - A classic comparible with LOTR? - not even close. It's dumbed down mystery writing.
You mention Enyd Blyton throughout your (excellent) hub. Why not drop Potter and stick in Famous Five instead?
Harry Potter is at about the same level and will soon drop into the nostalgia section. In twenty years time no-one will be reading Harry Potter while Tolkein will continue to extend and grow in influence and impact.
Rossyb: I agree with you to a certain extent. HP is just a mic of many books that have gone before and really doesn't give us any depth of character etc. There's nothing knew in them and true fantasy readers know this.
As you know I've read thousands of books over the years and this gives me somewhat of a unique view on these books.
One thing I note is that HP is bringing a lot of children back to reading - my kids have read the Hobbit, but got stuck on LOTR as it simply is very difficult to get through (the first 200 pages are really tough) - and yet they've read every HP book, seen all the movies and will go to the theme park.
Somehow, I feel this love of HP will move from generation to generation - the one thing Rowling has is that she is a storyteller - her writing style captures the audience in a way that not many writers do - even Steven King is a fan - while her books will never be true classics, they will be around for a lot longer than some people realize and it is for this reason that it entered my 'top ten'!
I really hope that Tolkien does come back as a force, but at the moment it only really influences fantasy readers - perhaps his son can re-edit it - and make it more appealing to general readers...
Outrageous!
Tolkein is still huge - he is selling more books now than when it was written.
Goes way beyond fantasy readers for one and brings in more people to the genre too.
I agree that its good that Potter has got kids reading again but so do comics :)
It's hype that got HP to such a level. I sat through the last movie with kids on both sides. Most of them were asleep by half way and it was clear they didn't have a clue what was going on in what was a very dark movie.
However, I bet they will all say they loved it, will show off to their friends and will beg to go again.
Once the hype has gone so will the books.
LOL my kids fell asleep after 20 pages of LOTR! Have you tried reading any other Tolkien books - they are well written, very detailed and BORING!!!! I'm a huge Tolkien fan and have read LOTR at least ten times so I love it - I'm just realistic - most kids will not get past the first 100 pages! The movies did help and that is why they are selling so much - but if you did a poll (in fact I'm gonna do a hub on it) on how many people actually completed LOTR I bet you'd be amazed how many haven't!!!
The thing about HP is that kids who loved them now will read them to their kids and their kids and their kids.....so it'll be around for ever! You say they have been hyped - yes you are right - but hype is one thing - if the first couple of books were bad, then no one would have bought the last few! And btw - HP will never go away while Rowling is alive - she'll write a new series based on HArry's father in about 20 years and all the original series will be re-published - you're a marketing guy - you know how it works - re-package re-package re-package!
BTW I just did a google search: LOTR 36,000,000 pages; HP: 112,000,000 pages.
I will have to go for the Lord of the Rings here. No doubt Harry Potter is an appealing story and you can feel with the characters as you write, but I doubt that it has the same longevity as Lord of the Rings. The main difference of the two is that LOTR is focused at adults, while HP is focused at older children. Adults are just more likely to stick to a thing they like than children.
I think that the same children who love HP now will love something else once the books and movies are done. Maybe Rowling can revive it again, but Tolkien has never needed to revive his story. It has always been a big seller and will most likely be for several years to come.
All in all we can only see what time will tell, but I will go with LOTR for now, then I will hide myself in a cave one day, if I realize I was all wrong.
Good hub anyway... :)
A Fourholt: it's funny, I was thinking about this last night! I agree with you - Lord of the Rings will always be there - whereas we will have to have constant reminders of HP for it to continue - sure it will sell well as new generations come up, but no where near the level it does now.
Tolkien created a whole knew world, invented languages, created races and provided a rich and detailed history - Rowling didn't really give us anything new, she rehashed old legends and myths and presnted us with a world we are already familiar with so we didn't really have to do much 'imagining'
Talk about a difficult question to answer. I myself am a huge fan of both series. In college I was lucky enough to be able to take a classic literature class that was all about Tolkien. I don't think I can pick a favorite however. I truly love both series, for different reasons. Tolkien is incredible in his detail and the entire history he created. To anyone that has read HP, you know that Rowling doesn't get that invested in the history of the magical world. In terms of backstory and detail that went into creating the story, Tolkien takes the cake. However, Rowling created quite a world with HP. She has been credited with getting a new generation into reading, which is incredible. I'm gonna have to read both series again now. :)
I'd say Lord of the Rings trumps Harry Potter, but honestly I don't think that we should argue which books are better. Personally, I'm not a Harry Potter fan. Read all the books and still don't get it, but everyone's titled to their own opinion. Both book series can be read and enjoyed, and it really doesn't matter which one the literary critics think is "better". :D
It is not a hard one for me. Lord of the rings wins hands down anytime.
I have and do enjoy the Harry potter films but Lord of the rings is just way better in my view.
Have a look at one of my hubs to see how much a fan i am off Lord of the rings if you dont believe me.....
I have to go with lord of the Rings+the Hobbit in 1st.
Harry Potter is a close 2nd.
Both are wonderful reads. Both have similar themes.
JK rowling is a fan of Tolkiens works.
LOTR and The Hobbit are great books and are very useful in teaching kids new vocabulary.
I don't think that any book any story can be better than harry potter. I not watch lotr that's why no commets.
I have been reading both of them, and i must say i can't tell wich is the best. I like more some things in Harry Potter, and others things in Lord of the Ring.
I agree with what you wrote about the two books, and their similar qualities - i must say i have been thinking the exactly same things!
you forgot 7 books:
Harry Potter and the philosophers stone
Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets
Harry Potter and the prizioner of Askaban
Harry Potter and the Golet of fire.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood-Prince
Harry Potter and the DEATHLY HALLOWS!!!! (best ending ever!!!)
To me lord of the rings sucks and it is a horcrux that needs to be destroyed.
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prasetio30 Level 8 Commenter 2 years ago
I like both of those film. Because there are many fantastic scene on both of them. We get a lot of imagination. I like the character in those film. With great author based on best seller book.